“Fly From Here” Reviewed
Disclaimer: I’ve been a serious Yes fan since about 1976. The release of Relayer was a big part of my musical discovery, and I sit facing a lithograph of Roger Dean’s cover in my home office. They are, without a doubt, my favorite and most-listened to band over the forty years I’ve been listening to [...]
8 Track Tapes Make Me Laugh
8 track tapes make me laugh. Anything involving 8 track tape references makes me laugh. Whoever invented the format thought it would be OK to fade songs in and out so they fit the impossibly short lengths of the tape loop. The player moves the heads between track pairs, ensuring that you’ll never approach any [...]
Feeling Old On A Friday Night
Bily Crystal wrote in 700 Sundays that he felt old when Mickey Mantle died, his first childhood hero’s death forcing him to deal with mortality. I felt the same way when Willie Stargell died in 2001, on the very day that the more-than-lifesize statue of him was to be unveiled at the new Pittsburgh baseball [...]
Really Classic Rock
Disclaimer: I’m writing while listening to Yngwie Malmsteen’s Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra in E Minor, which is the perfect complement to my Godsmack t-shirt and fuzzy duck slippers. Context: While standing around with other middle school parents a few weeks ago, one (who happens to be a music teacher) posed a question to use [...]
Bottom Of The Band
I have always wanted to play the bass guitar. Gene Simmons from Kiss, Geddy Lee from Rush, John Camp of Renaissance, and of course Chris Squire of Yes (the latter two with their Rickenbacker axes; the former with his axe posing as bass) were my musical heroes. Twenty-seven years ago, I first attempted to learn [...]
Long Tale of Non-Commercial College Radio
Commercial college radio provided me with my first experiences in sales. As an advertising sales “rep” for WPRB-FM, Princeton’s student-run radio station, I had to pitch ideas, produce ads, write copy, frequently voice the ads myself, manage our cash stream and do demand generation. It was a great way to finance my growing record collection. [...]
Syn of Commission
I’m the kind of person for whom upselling was invented. While trolling iTunes for some John Wetton-led U.K., I was tempted to look at The Syn. Being a Yes omnivore from my teenage days, I knew that bassist Chris Squire was a member of a group called “The Syn” in his pre-Yes days (being in [...]
Asia in New York
That’s not Simon Phipps addressing an open source conference — rather it’s John Wetton, bass player and front man for Asia, the “original” supergroup of the mid-80s formed from the remainders of Yes, King Crimson, UK, Emerson, Lake and Palmer and the Buggles (unless you count them as part of Yes). Wetton is using a [...]
Lucky 13
It’s been 13 months since I started blogging. I’ve discovered old friends (who have discovered me online). I’ve found interesting Google page-ranking algorithm effects that cause my blog to show up in the most amusing searches. I’ve received emails from Willie Stargell’s niece, from Rick Wakeman (of Yes keyboard fame), and from a friend of [...]
Yes and the Round
Yes-heads will immediately note that the late 70s tour was “Yes in the Round” and I’ve botched the title. But I spent the early part of this evening thinking about the various circles of Yes-dom and how they intersect. I’ve previously written about the intermediation of various circles of interests, ranging from eBay to charity [...]